


I, Coulson

by Skyepilot



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Affinity, Alien Technology, Aliens, Alternate Universe, Conspiracies, Coulson loves Skye's voice, Cybernetics, Destiny, F/M, Falling In Love, First Kiss, Humor, Love, Love saves the universe, Rising Tide, Robot in love, Science Fiction, Skye Skye Skye, Skye is Coulson's hero, Skye is a revolutionary, Transhumanism, Ultron - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-11
Updated: 2014-11-11
Packaged: 2018-02-24 23:01:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2599718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyepilot/pseuds/Skyepilot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is an A/U fic I started writing awhile back and decided to finish after watching the Fifth Element.  It's the future, and SHIELD is used by Ultron to subdue the people of planet Earth. Skye is a member of the Rising Tide and Coulson is a robot company man.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I, Coulson

Suspended from the wire she hung in silence, waiting for the implant to send the signal for her to begin the hack.

The Rising Tide's star player, she was often put into these situations because of her ability play it cool. And in these unique situations, not breaking a sweat was, literally, necessary.

She craned her head to look at the floor below her, hair held back in a braid wrapped in a tight knot at the base of her neck.

The implant sent the image to the back of her retina with a jolt and the mission parameters displayed across her cornea.

She hated implants and she hated everything they'd been made to give up in order to compete in this kind of world.

She wished for a different world. With different rules.

But, with these kinds of things as their opposition, playing by the rules just wasn't in the cards.

She wished for a different world as she pressed the compartment at her wrist and it popped open releasing the keypad as she began the hack that would tamper the exhaust system and let the team of mercenaries that had hired them cross from lunar atmosphere into SHIELD's base.

Getting her the right creds as a sanitation worker had taken over six months. The week-long process has involved too many full body scans and careful examination of all her implants by the robotic agents that participated in SHIELD's operations.

What they wanted was access to SHIELD's deepest, darkest secret. The question that everyone enslaved on Earth below wanted to know.

Who, _or what_ , was in charge of SHIELD?'

This was dangerous and she knew she might not come back, but it was worth it. The game here was to see if she could outsmart SHIELD's sophisticated systems.

Just for a few seconds, just long enough for the team to make it in.

The window passed, and Skye had held it open.

If possible, she would meet up with them. Should they be able to communicate with her via the implant.

Otherwise, she was to go back to her sanitation job and play her part until the right moment.

 

***

 

Skye sat in the small box called her quarters. More like a cell, really, but with artificial light projected from behind a fake window.

She wondered what their plan was? They were very careful to not share too many details, to keep the whole thing compartmentalized.

She'd turn off the gravity on the base, for starters.

The buzz at her door startled her, and she turned quickly towards it, finished zipping up her blue jumpsuit and standing.

When the door slid open, the man staring in front of her eyed her curiously.

Dressed in a neat suit, like they all did, she caught the red of his eye implant blink out and wondered if he was even human at all, or merely just made to look like one.

"Horatia Hornblower," he stated flatly. "Is that an attempt at humor?"

"My parents were nostalgic," she replied sarcastically.

"Where were you at 0825 today?"

"Just hanging out here in my bunk, nibbling on my tasty rations."

She was nervous. The robot had somehow coldly accessed the humor behind her fake name.

"Please come with me."

This was it. Maybe she had been made, but putting up a fight right here and now wasn't going to do her any good.

At the very least, it had cybernetic enhancements, was probably ten times stronger than her.

The Rising Tide had tried to get her to hack one, once, but it had left her too uneasy. She didn't know if it had been human at one point.

She just couldn't.

"Is this about me jacking illegally?" she asked, trying to delay the inevitable. "Because, I totally can explain that."

It was always better to give them a little something in situations like these.

The eerie thing was that there was something about his blue eyes that disturbed her. They looked so human.

 _Please_ let something happen.

"No," he answered, taking a step forward.

She had one EMP burst planned as a backup. Maybe this was the time.

"Get up. Now," he finally said, demanding.

Skye stepped out into the hallway, finding them alone in the corridor, its grey walls stretching on endlessly.

"where are you taking me?" she asked, following after him.

"I'll ask the questions," he said.

They passed other agents, as he nodded to them and shut her up in a special interrogation room. Honeycomb walls. She had seen one from a leaked transmission before. The hatch above would deposit her into the oxygenless surface of the moon.

This was it.

The door closed heavily behind her as the agent motioned towards the chair behind the desk.

"I prefer to stand."

"Very well."

He tossed a very small chip on the table in front of her.

"What's that?" she asked, reaching for it.

He moved quickly, too quickly, and placed his hand over it.

"Not so fast," he said, smirking.

She didn't like that face at all.

"This is everything we have on you. About your family. Where you came from."

Skye suddenly felt her knees go weak and sat in the chair.

"In exchange for giving us the names of the Rising Tide leaders, you can have it."

She bit her lip, felt tears welling up in her eyes.

" _No_."

There was a momentary flash in his eyes and he jerked up quickly and turned his back to her.

The EMP burst was all she might have left. Maybe it would short out the secure door behind him, too?

The agent swung back around towards her, like a puppet on a string.

"You leave us no other choice, then."

Then she saw it, just a moment. A twitch in his face, like a glitch.

"What's wrong, evil robot lackey? Don't like your orders?"

"Something...is...happening...," he stammered out.

Just then all the lights dimmed and they both lifted off the ground, and the gravity was gone.

"Perfect," Skye said, ready to push the EMP.

Then, everything exploded.

  
****

  
She could taste the blood in her mouth as her vision cleared.

No way of telling how long she'd been out.

Looking around the room, debris scattered everywhere, she realized that gravity had been restored.

Maybe The Rising Tide had been successful?

Suddenly, she saw a pile of metal sheeting stir next to her.

Shoving away the debris, the suit stood to his feet, staring down at her, a frown on his face.

Skye began to scramble and realized that her legs were trapped.

Her hand went to her wrist as he approached.

"Don't," he said, stopping. "I need you."

"What?" she asked, confused.

"You can reprogram me. Now. It's necessary to finish this. I know how to stop him."

He moved forward and pushed the metal off her legs and lifted her into the air in one easy movement.

She didn't understand how exactly he was involved in their plan, but it sounded better than the alternative.

Kneeling, she pressed the panel on her forearm and it opened.

He dropped to his knees and quickly removed his jacket, beginning to undo the buttons of his shirt.

Tapping the compartment on his chest, it slid open and she connected the jack and began the hack.

"Were you human?" she asked him.

"I don't know," he answered.

"You don't look human," she said, eyes flickering up to his chest.

"No, I suppose not. What I do know is how to bring down SHIELD."

"Did...were you a part of this op?"

"No," he smiled, warmly. "But, I am now. As long as you're successful."

"Will you remember anything?" she asked, staring, transfixed at the code running over her cornea.

"Hard to say. But, I'd rather be dead...than this."

"And what is...this?" she asked, frightened by what the code was saying to her.

"It's being...nothing," he said, a bitter scowl on his face.

"I'm sorry," she said. "This might hurt."

He nodded and she pressed the button as he fell over, eyes wide open, staring at her.

She realized she didn't even know his name.

As he lay there, she retrieved the jack and closing her arm, stared around the room.

Getting to her feet she moved towards the door, seeing the red emergency lights filtering in from the corridor.

She jumped out of her skin as she turned around to see him standing right behind her, directing her towards the door.

"Let's go."

"At least tell me your name, asshole," she said, releasing the breath caught in her throat.

"Coulson," he said, looking at her intensely.

"I'm..."

"Skye," he said. "I know."

He motioned towards the door.

  
***

They were in the air conditioning ducts crawling towards the upper levels, towards the command towers.

"Did you know what was on my file?" she asked, turning over her shoulder to look at him behind her.

"Yes."

He nodded urging her forward.

"Are you going to tell me?" she muttered, annoyed.

"You're a very special woman, Skye," he said. "I'm afraid hearing your transmissions made an impression on me."

That made her turn and look at him again.

Was he being serious?

"My programmers would have called it a glitch."

He gave a small smile and she rolled her eyes, continuing on.

Then the narrow crawlspace shook as there was another series of explosions and Coulson had his arm around her quickly and pulled her with him along the corridor as the heat from the explosion reached out from behind them.

He stopped when they got to a juncture, and they heard yelling and voices from the grate below them.

Pulling her back, his arms full of her, he motioned with a finger over his mouth for her to stay silent.

When they passed he looked at her and whispered.

"I'm afraid the Agents have retaken control of the station. Your team might be dead, or worse."

"I don't know anything about the op," she said back to him, her head shaking sadly, thinking about the heartwrenching weight of more people being wiped away by SHIELD.

"We might be all that's left. I'm still recieving orders, he doesn't know I've turned."

"Who is 'he'?" Skye asked.

"Ultron."

"What can we do?" she asked.

"I have Level 8 access."

Skye's eyes widened, this was what they had been waiting for, this seemed impossible, but he, they...

"Your parents," he said, "Were from another world, Skye."

"Wait...what?!"

"I need you to trust me," he answered calmly. "It's just us now. But maybe we can help each other."

"Do I have a choice?" she asked, jerking her arm away from him.

"Yes, but I would seriously consider the alternatives."

"So then, not really," she said, annoyed.

"I can pass for an Agent, I'm stronger than you, I can protect you. But I still need you. Only if we want to change everything," he added impatiently.

"Oh."

"We need weapons," he considered. "Nothing too flashy."

He prompted her forward as they trudged on through the vents.

  
***

  
Lowering himself out first, he fell ten feet and landed solid.

"Jump," he demanded, looking up at her face peeking out from the open duct.

She shrugged and let herself fall down the hole as he caught her in his arms with little effort.

"You can put me down," she said, as his eyes scanned over her.

"You have a corneal implant," he said, softly, staring at her eyes.

Was the robot attempting to flirt with her?

"Oh, please," she said and he took the hint and let her legs drop to the ground.

"Right," he said, moving quickly he went to a panel and entered a code, pulling the weapon free, as she moved out of range of the cameras and plugged into the wall panel, typing away as the camera's gaze moved closer to where she was.

She set the recording on a loop and headed back towards him.

"Piece of cake," she said.

"You're impressed with yourself," he said. "But don't get too cocky. Eventually they'll realize the feed is looping and send maintenance to check it."

"How quickly?" she asked, annoyed he was downplaying the fact that they weren't setting off all the alarms right now.

He tossed the weapon towards her and she caught it timidly.

"I'm not good in a gunfight," she said, holding it awkwardly.

"You need to lose that jumpsuit, too," he said. "We need something that will get you access at a higher level."

"Like what?" she asked, looking him over, "Dressed like some starched shirt?"

"I see you really don't know anything about Ultron," he answered with a frown. "You ever wonder why they allow humans up here?"

"I've wondered," she said. "I figured it was to maintain processes they were no longer interested in."

"Ultron is still interested in some processes."

"And are you trying to make me vomit?"

"Pretty much," he strugged, distracted. He was looking for something in particular going through the cabinets as he tossed varying doors aside in a steady review of their contents.

"He used to be a man, once," he continued. Finally he chose an enormous gun, inspected it, and slung it over his back.

"So, calling him a robot's probably inaccurate."

"What happened to not 'too flashy'?" she asked as he held the giant weapon against his hip.

"We used to date back on the assembly line," he joked.

He reached for her waist before asking, "May I?" Then he hauled her back up into the air vent. She waited and watched as he pushed over a table and climbed up and back into it with her.

"Your stupid gun doesn't fit in here," she said.

"You're right," he agreed, and he let it drop onto the ground below.

  
***

"So tell me all about this Ultron douchebag," Skye said, whispering, while they were trapped in the crawlspace as more troops moved just below them.

"Something else is happening," he said. "I'm not getting much information, but they're calling Level 8 agents back upstairs. Must be the contingency."

"Why are you doing this?" she asked. "Why did you come after me?"

"Ultron wanted to eliminate you. He knew about your plan, but, he let it continue. Something happened. My glitch...I know there have been others. When Ultron assimilated those that opposed him, I think their collective knowledge worked their way into him, like a virus. It waited, and now it's fighting back."

"So, you're saying, you helped me, even though you didn't know you were helping me, because someone else was helping me, and that someone was Ultron, but not?"

"I think so," he said, looking up. "But, also, I listened to all your transmissions, and they did something to me," he whispered back.

"Did they make you go stalkery?" she said, pushing him back with a hand.

"Did I do something?" he asked, shrugging his shoulders. She didn't reply. "Did I do something _else_?" he corrected.

"You're too sophisticated to be a robot," she said. "Too funny, too..."

"It's alright, you can say it," he said, eyeing her.

"You're not _that_ charming."

"The way you encoded the transmission, or the subliminal triggers, it did something to my programming. Was that deliberate or just a very happy accident?" he asked quickly.

"Maybe it's my freakin' alien powers?" she shot back.

"Good point," he said. "I have some old files, about an experimental serum. I was injected with it, as were a handful of others."

"Let me guess, it was..."

"Alien", they both said at the same time, looking at each other.

"Ugh," she said, putting her hand in front of his face. "Stop it."

He looked back at her through her fingers, a little puzzled.

"You're not cute," she muttered to herself. 

He stopped, listening and noted the lack of noise below.

"Time to move on," he said.

  
***

  
She trusted him. Why, she wasn't sure.

His stupid suits and his blue eyes and his flirting and...they weren't going to die.

That was all.

She needed to know what he was. Who he had been, whatever. It was a mystery, like she was, and he knew what she was.  She needed that.

He'd told her he'd be there, that she had to get close enough and then plug directly into Ultron's interface, _he_ would provide the distraction.

She didn't like the sound of that.

He'd kept putting his body in between her and danger, talking about being strong, like he was expendable, like he was some kind of shield.

After he'd dumped her into the mix of servants that went back and forth daily into Ultron's presence, she'd regretted telling him that he was selling her out, that he he was no gentleman at all, only to discover that Ultron was a crazy ass neat freak and she had to wear a sterilization suit. I mean, it was still super-tight, though. And they were all female. But, she totally got to take lots of hot showers.

That's when she realized what a sarcastic asshole he was. And it was kind of cute.

Even though Ultron was under attack, his daily routine would be maintained. There as a strange calm that existed behind enemy lines.

They stood in a procession, waiting to ascend the stairs to where Ultron sat. Behind him, there were huge windows that displayed the Earth hanging in the balance. You could see the control stations with their blinking red lights all over the globe.

Finally, an agent moved them along to proceed up the stairs.

As she took each step closer, she thought about how this wasn't what she planned for, but this is what she's wanted to know. Another mystery. Who was this Ultron? Why in the hell did he think it was his right to...?

She stood in front of him, holding the tray.

It was all meant to be perfectly timed, of course. She was to be there at 0825.

Then, she remembered.

Like her body had never forgotten, she threw the tray at the agent, then leapt towards the robot, looking at the faces changing over its interface. Flipping around the defensive measures, the weaponized arms that jutted out at her, bending beyond the lazer shots and weaving between knives tossed at her.

"Hey!"

She turned in mid-air and saw Coulson standing at the bottom of the stairs, with his stupid, giant gun, pointing it up at Ultron.

He was a bit too distracted, though, she thought. Looked a little too enamored at her swinging around and behind the robot to grab a knife and then jam it into the compartment at the base of its neck, prying it open.

The tentacled arms reached around behind her and a blast sent them flying apart.

"Jump!" Coulson yelled. And she pushed up off Ultron's head as an electromagnetic pulse went outward, rippling away.

She landed back behind the massive robot and watched Coulson fall to the ground like a broken doll.

It was time to end this.

  
***

"Coulson."

He heard his name and then the light penetrated his eyelids.

But, it was the voice. He recognized her voice.   _Skye._

"Skye," he said, smiling, and then breathed it in.  " _Skye_."

"Thanks for not being dead," she said, coming into focus, looking down into his face.

It was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.  Those brown eyes staring down into his.

"EMP," he said, trying to be smooth. "Go figure."

"You knew," she said, touching her hand to his. It was like he just realized he had a hand for the first time.

"About what?" he asked.

"Me, having that MANTIS program coded into my DNA," she said, drawing her fingers along his palm.

"Oh, I didn't know about that at all," he said, smirking. "But, I mean, it made quite the impression on me."

She looked away from him for a moment, gathering her thoughts before she said, "Do you know what my transmissions were about?"

Sitting up straight on edge of his hospital bed, she continued. "What I was floating out in the air into the universe?"

"I do," he said, and leaning forward, he just touched her face.  "Love."

She stared back at his silly expression, holding her breath.

"It just kept escaping me...," he went on. "Until, I..."

She silenced him, leaning forward with a sudden kiss.

Then he stared back at her, his fingers reaching for her hair as she sat back again.

"Until what?" she asked, smirking.

"Until _you_."


End file.
